Mischa watched the needle enter her friend's forearm. The red liquid pooled into vial after vial. Rubber soles clacked against the floors as a shadow darkened her view. Her eyes flicked up to a woman in a white lab coat with thick silver glasses. A quick glance to either side confirmed the nurse sought her blood next. She swallowed and stood, using her sweaty palms to balance the act.

"Do you know your blood type, Ms. Hues?"

"AB positive, I think?" She'd only gone to donate blood once, and the whole experience had nearly left her collapsed on the floor.

"This is just routine to test for vitamin and mineral levels, antibodies, potential infections."

Once she had sat down in the vinyl chair, the woman tied a rubber band around her upper arm so tight Mischa's eyes slammed shut. The woman began to play with the skin on Mischa's forearm with her rough fingers. Mischa searched with her for the blue gateway to get her out of this place that much faster. She tried making a fist, but her veins just wouldn't cooperate and reveal themselves.

The woman sighed before piercing her skin with the needle. When nothing happened, she jerked it out and stabbed away three more times. The skin burned with each attempt. Why couldn't this woman find the damn vein?

The woman muttered something that Mischa could have sworn sounded like, "I hate working with the live ones."

Mischa's heart beat fast. She tried to recall the people she had seen a floor down experimenting on human bodies but couldn't discern if her imagination was going wild or others were seriously out to get her. A glance around confirmed the other nurse had finished up with April. She sighed in relief and put a smile, hoping she could talk her current prodder out of drawing blood from the back of her hand.   

"Maybe the other nurse can find my vein."

The woman's eyes narrowed, and her grip on Mischa's hand tightened uncomfortably.

"Are you implying I'm bad at my job?"

"Of course not. But a second opinion never hurts."

The look Mischa received made her wonder if the woman wouldn't just stab her in the chest out of spite to get that sample. She should have known better than to piss off people with potential weapons. She looked around for her own, but the room was short on scalpels. It was probably for the best since she didn't know if she had the ability to stab anyone effectively.

Moments later, the aforementioned nurse joined them. "How're we doing over here?"

"She's a stubborn one."

"Let's see if we can't fix this situation," he said as he pulled up a stool in the place of the first nurse. He glanced at her file. "Mischa, is it?" She nodded. "Let's give this another try, I'll get you to make another fist. Good." He looked closely at her arm and smiled. "There's the little bugger," he said as he slid the needle into her arm.

His gray eyes connected with hers and his bedside manner shone with his smile. "We'll try to get you out of here quickly. This is probably just a formality for you girls." He turned his head toward April who was still in the room. "I can't see them asking you two to go through this process when you haven't even grown up yourselves. They have plenty of options, and I'm sure it'll be a few more years before the whole cycle starts for you."

A few more years? They really intended to live underground for years and years, slowly repopulating by forcing it on the women of age to act as receptacles.

"How long do people plan to live down here?" Mischa asked.

"This facility wasn't hacked together at the last minute, sweetie. It took years, but it's built to last."

"I don't understand why people are so set on living underground."

The man gave her a smile which only felt patronizing. Just because she wasn't in on this from the start didn't make her questions any less valid.

"If you knew what was out there now, you wouldn't want to leave."

"I'm not saying I want to leave," Mischa started, in case there were security personal lurking around the corner, "but it seems more practical to live near food and water. The agricultural team is out there once a day anyway."

"We're supervised, and a tactical crew always surveys the area first," April said without a smile.

"Why, what exactly do they expect to find out there?"

"I think that's enough questions, Ms. Hues," the male nurse spoke firmly and removed the final vial and needle from her arm.

Mischa scowled as she and April made their way to a group of more vinyl chairs. Five women were ahead of them in line and Mischa's mind still reeled. The topics at hand tore her focus in two. Should she be more worried about the unannounced dangers lurking outside the colony or the clear ones sitting behind those gray doors in examination rooms?

"What's outside of this whole place, April?"

"I'm not sure exactly. Maybe biological threats, like communicable diseases or other?"

"How do they even test for that?"

April's eyes dropped to her hands. "They are looking for carriers."

Mischa furrowed her brow.

"Living things that have become infected. They say the odds are unlikely we'll come across anyone, but to be careful if we do," April clarified.

"Have they found anything?"

"No, people circulate rumors but that's all they are."

Mischa decided to drop the subject as April didn't seem to want to divulge further information. Maybe if she could get herself a spot on the agricultural team, she could figure the situation out for herself. This place screamed repression so any news she could get, even in the form of gossip could help her figure out what she might come across out there.

After April was called in for her exam, Mischa paced the hallway with trembling hands. The nurse stopped her and led her to an empty exam room. Two foot stirrups protruded from the exam bed. The nurse instructed her to get into a hospital gown. She reluctantly got into the cloth gown and sat awkwardly in the chair beside the clothing she wished she could wear. The paper gown crinkled every time she shifted her weight while scratching away at her dry skin. A knock came at the door and a female voice asked if she was ready. Mischa sighed; she could never be ready for any of this.

The middle-aged woman entered the room with a smile and sat down at her computer. She brought up a screen with Mischa's last profile picture. How did they have her old social media accounts? She smoothed her hands on the loud gown. Maybe her dad had needed to provide them to grant her entry. That had to be it.

"Hello Ms. Hues, how are you today?"

She bit her lip. "Alright."

"I just have a few questions for you, and then we'll have a routine exam to make sure you're healthy. It's important to monitor your well-being regardless of who's selected for this program." The doctor looked at her with a practised smile until Mischa did the same. "What medical conditions have run in your immediate family?"

Mischa sighed and fixed her eyes on her bare feet. Why did that have to be her opening question? By now, all it took was a deep breath to get out the truth; she had had enough time to accept it but it still ached. "My mother died of a heart attack, ten years ago."

The doctor's fingers began to clack away on the keyboard. "Any other conditions, history of depression, anxiety or any other mental health issues?"

Mischa shook her head without looking up.

"Any diabetes, obesity, heart disease?"

Another head shake.

"How much caffeine, alcohol do you regularly consume?"

"None at the moment."

"Prior to the disaster?"

 "I dunno, normal caffeine and alcohol?"

 "Define normal."

"Three to four coffees a week and drink maybe once or twice a month."

Only the sound of the keyboard filled the room. Mischa closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. If the silence continued, maybe she could leave soon. She grimaced as she realized she should have pretended to be an alcoholic to lower her odds of being a suitable candidate.

"Are you sexually active?"

"Um," Mischa started, not completely sure what that meant.

"Are you having sex?"

"No."

Her dad would have her head on a platter if that were the case. The only reason Quinton came out of their dinner alive yesterday hinged on the fact Mischa had vouched for their friendship and balked at the idea of sleeping with him.

Her cheeks went red as her imagination contemplated the what-ifs of stopping his kiss yesterday. His lips had felt so soft and warm pressed against her skin. She focused instead on the doctor's chestnut hair, pulled into a careful bun. No time to be distracted.

The only way she had gotten away with intimacy with her ex, Danny, for so long was to spend quality time with her best friend 'Danielle'. It almost hurt that her sad attempt at a lie went completely undetected by her father since she had introduced Danny as her boyfriend earlier.

"Have you ever had sex?"

Mischa bit her lip. "Yes."

"When was the last time?"

"Four months ago." It coincided with the time Gunnar began to play a bigger role in her life. She and Danny had broken it off a few weeks later.

"And the age you became sexually active?"

"Fifteen," she answered, and her stomach knots tightened.

"Did you use any form of contraception at the time?"

"Yeah, condoms."

"Did any of your actions result in pregnancy?"

"No."

The questions continued. Mischa played with the paper gown until she had to sit up on the examination table. The doctor poked and prodded around inside her. It was beyond uncomfortable, and Mischa tried to put her mind elsewhere while the whole thing happened. The doctor left with a few swabs to be tested. Mischa rushed to put her clothes back on and get out of the gown.

The doctor returned with another machine and squirted some gel on Mischa's stomach after stopping her from leaving. Cold spread across her stomach before a handheld machine was pressed. An image appeared on a screen in low resolution.

"Very nice," the doctor said, instilling the fear of God in her. Those were the last words she wanted to hear. Very nice would not get her out of this predicament. The doctor tried to get her to look at the screen, but she refused. After the doctor was finished, Mischa wiped away the gel with a napkin and nearly took off running.

April waited for her at the end of the hallway, and they both went down to supper since the ordeal had taken all afternoon. Mischa couldn't say she had any trace of an appetite left. Those two terrifying words echoed over and over in her mind. The boys were very curious when they returned as was Juana as she wondered what she had to face tomorrow.

"Wasn't too bad, they had a blood test and a bunch of questions. That was it. It was like some kind of audition for teen mom or something," April said with a laugh. "They weren't too interested after they found out I wasn't scandalous enough to sleep my way around the colony."

Mischa's leg shook below the table. She didn't think she was scandalous either but that didn't seem to be the same. She tried to remember the number of women in the first room so she could calculate her odds of being one of the six.

"That's it?" Juana asked and pushed a strand of black hair out of her eyes. A relieved smile almost spread across her face.

"Yes, unless yours was different, Mischa?" April said, turning to the pale girl pushing the food around her plate with a fork.

"There's a physical exam too," she muttered.

"Oh," April and Juana said in surprise.

"They must really like you," Navjot commented. Mischa chose not to respond. The frown didn't leave her face.

April shot Navjot a narrowed eyes look. "They're only picking six, Mischa. There's a high chance they won't pick you," she said reassuringly.

Her legs kept shaking. Not with a comment like very nice.